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“In 2013 when Indigenous
Australian screen work is
grabbing attention all over
the world, Sydneysiders
have the privilege of getting
the first look at the latest
offerings. This year’s line-up
of documentaries and dramas
come from our seasoned
story tellers – Ivan Sen and
Steven McGregor – and our
newest talent – Dylan McDonald
and Jon Bell. Screen: BlAck
promises lots of laughs, a few
tears and a truly celebratory
and thought-provoking journey
into the world of contemporary
Indigenous Australia.”
– Erica Glynn
ScrEEn auStralia
indiGEnouS dEpartmEnt
Sydney Film Festival is proud of our new
partnership with Screen Australia’s Indigenous
Department, a team that has nurtured many
of the projects and filmmakers that SFF has
screened in the past. The history has been
strong, and the future is looking good too.
The first documentary directed by an
Indigenous woman, Essie Coffey’s landmark
My Survival as an Aboriginal, screened in the
festival’s short-film competition in 1979.
Tracey Moffat’s Nice Coloured Girls (1987)
and Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (1989) and
Warwick Thornton’s Green Bush (2005)
all screened in competition. Rachel Perkins
has been at home at SFF from her debut
Radiance in 1998 to her triumphant feature
Mabo last year. Ivan Sen is one of the
Indigenous filmmakers leading the next
generation, from his shorts Wind and Dust
(both 2000) to his Cannes-selected feature
Toomelah (2011) and his very latest, this year’s
SFF Opening Night film Mystery Road. For this
edition we bring you films from Jon Bell
(The Chuck In, page 50), Dylan McDonald
(Buckskin, page 16), Steven McGregor (Big
Name No Blanket, page 16) and Ivan Sen
(Mystery Road, page 8).
Screen: Bl Ack
Buckskin
StorieS We tell
Fri 14 Jun 6:15 PM STATE
SAT 15 Jun 12:05 PM STATE
Sun 16 Jun 2:00 PM CrEMOrnE
Canada | 2012 | 108 mins | In English
AuSTrAliAn PrEMiErE
Director, Screenwriter: Sarah Polley | Producer: Anita Lee| Distributor: Palace Films
The third feature in Sarah Polley’s luminous career as a filmmaker – following her Academy Award®-nominated
Away from Her (SFF 2007) and Take This Waltz (2011) – is both intensely intimate and genre-twisting. Stories We
Tell is a moving portrait of Polley’s family – her many siblings, actor-writer father, and actress mother – and a
legacy of secrets and lies. As with many families, there are a multitude of stories that have been told through the
years. Polley, the youngest child, mines this oral tradition in this groundbreaking film, seamlessly blending past
and present, the real and the imagined. Many and varied perspectives emerge from this storytelling, cleverly
evoking questions about the elusive nature of memory and truth. Polley’s characteristically unflinching yet
compassionate gaze delivers an exceptional level of depth and emotion. As Polley says, “If I have learned
anything from making this film, it is that we can’t all be right and we can’t all be wrong. So we must be
unintentionally distorting things to varying degrees in order to feed our own version of what we need the past
and history to be, and in our way, we must all be telling the truth as well.”
Filmmaker guest: Sarah Polley
SArAh POllEy was born in Toronto. She is a director, writer
and actress. Her debut feature Away from Her (SFF 2007) received a number of
accolades, including two Oscar® nominations and Genie Awards for Best Motion
Picture and Achievement in Direction.
Wadjda
Fri 7 Jun 6:00 PM STATE
SAT 8 Jun 12:00 PM STATE
Saudi Arabia, Germany | 2012 | 97 mins | In Arabic with English subtitles
AuSTrAliAn PrEMiErE
Director, Screenwriter: Haifaa Al Mansour | Producers: Roman Paul, Gerhard Meixner | Cast: Reem Abdullah, Waad Mohammed, Abdullrahman
Al Gohani | Distributor: Hopscotch Films
Wadjda is the first feature film shot entirely in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where cinemas are not permitted.
Directed by that country’s first woman filmmaker, University of Sydney graduate Haifaa Al Mansour, the story
follows a 10-year-old girl who wants nothing more than to own a bicycle. Though growing up in a conservative
world, Wadjda (a remarkable Waad Mohammed) is fun-loving and rebellious. One day she sees and covets a
beautiful green bicycle. But her mother won’t buy it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as
dangerous to a girl’s virtue. So Wadjda decides to raise the money herself, and becomes determined to win the
cash prize for a Koran recitation competition at her school. She devotes herself to the memorisation of Koranic
verses, and her teachers begin to see her as a model of piety. A groundbreaking and important film, Wadjda is
filled with hope, and is as entertaining as it is gently subversive. Says Al Mansour: “I come from a small town in
Saudi Arabia where there are many girls like Wadjda who have big dreams, strong characters and so much
potential. These girls can, and will, reshape and redefine our nation.”
Filmmaker guest: Haifaa Al Mansour (Haifaa’s appearance at the festival is supported by The University of Sydney)
hAiFAA Al MAnSOur was born in Saudi Arabia and graduated from The
University of Sydney with a Masters in Film Studies. The first female Saudi filmmaker,
her 2005 documentary Women Without Shadows gained international acclaim.
Wadjda (2012) won Best Arab Feature Film at the Dubai International Film Festival.
SYDneY FIlM FeSTIVAl 2013
SFF.OrG.Au
14 OFFIcIAl cOMpeTITIOn